MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – They buried him hundreds of miles from the menagerie that is South Florida, decades of selfless giving lowered into the rich red clay in a small south Alabama town.

Somehow, it just doesn’t seem right. Here is Nico Johnson, playing the last game of a championship career at Alabama that never would have been without the man they called Duke, standing in the epicenter of college football while the death of his uncle was mourned so far away in Andalusia, Ala.

“I’m just devastated by it,” Johnson says. “I haven’t even really had time to grieve.”

The Kiwanis Community Center, the place where Durrell “Duke” Smith helped so many at-risk youth in Andalusia; where he steered so many from temptation and trouble toward faith and hope and action, never looked so full Saturday afternoon to celebrate a life taken too soon.

A lost life, and another tragic twist for Nico Johnson.

Two years ago, the woman who meant everything to Johnson died unexpectedly and everything shut down. He couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep and certainly couldn’t think about football when his mother passed away.

Mamie Johnson, who once had a dangerous in-vitro procedure while carrying Nico to keep him safe – he still has a scar on his chest from it – finally succumbed in the spring of 2010 to her lifelong battle with diabetes.

They all called him Duke around Andalusia, and it became such a fitting name for a larger than life man with full, open arms. How ironic that the man with the biggest heart in Andalusia died early last week because it finally gave way.

Even in death, Duke, 53, offered one final, selfless act printed in the local newspaper:

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Miracle League of Covington County.

The Miracle League of Covington County is a community-based effort to promote awareness and support for children with special needs, and to provide an interactive playground and baseball field for special needs children.

Duke almost made it to opening day. It wasn’t but a week ago that Johnson spoke with Duke on the phone, and April 2013 was closing in fast. The latest in a long line of Smith’s charitable crusades was just about complete.

“He just wanted to talk about me,” Johnson said. “That’s who Duke was.”

He was Nico’s uncle, but he was his bus driver in elementary school. He was his father Andrew’s brother, but he ran the Andalusia Sports Complex where Nico ran to so many days after school to escape what could have been the same fate so many in his hometown found.

Nico’s older brother was arrested when he was 14, and before Nico finished elementary school. Maybe that’s why Nico, a chubby fifth-grader, found hope and guidance with Duke. Why he spent summers at that sports complex lifting weights and listening to Duke and pushing himself to eventually become one of the top linebackers in high school football.

Why the love for his mother, he says, grew also into respect -- and a desire to make her life better. He was 15 when he walked into the house one day and saw his mother having complications from her diabetes.

She was on the floor and he could do nothing to help. The only way he could help, he finally realized, was to get a college degree to ease her mind and to play in the NFL to ease her financial burden. She never got to see either.

Now, neither does Duke.

These are the times when it really is just about waking up the next morning. When a game, even one like Alabama's on Monday against Notre Dame for the BCS National Championship, really can’t compensate for what keeps you up at night.

We too often forget through the lens of a multimedia smorgasbord bent on creating stars or crushing dreams (or both) that these are still young men only a few years removed from being teenagers desperate for direction. One life-altering event can forever change the course of a man’s journey.

But two?

When Nico lost Mamie, he wanted to walk away from the game. It took weeks of counsel from Scott Cochran, Alabama’s eccentric and energetic strength and conditioning director, to bring Nico back mentally and physically.

“He’s a different man today,” Cochran said. “Mamie raised him well; taught him right from wrong and what was important in life. He has an inner strength he never knew he had. The world needs more Nico Johnsons.”

In about four months, the Miracle League of Covington County will begin its first season. In about four months, Nico Johnson – Alabama’s co-Defensive Player of the Year -- will be drafted by an NFL team that will get a Day 1 player and a Day 1 man of character.

In about four months, Mamie will have been gone for three years. At least she has Duke with her now.

Andrew Johnson called his son early Saturday morning, but Nico was busying fulfilling obligations to the Alabama team at Media Day. Life continues to soldier on.

“We still haven’t talked much about (Mamie) because it’s still very hard on both of us,” Nico said. “It’s one of those things where we just understand.”